Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and the state of Arizona have been at the center of a lot of controversy over the last year, from the state’s enactment of a strict immigration law last April (signed by Brewer) and the fury it caused among liberals, to her claims in a gubernatorial debate last year that defended the law based erroneously on beheadings in Arizona’s deserts (presumably by illegals), to her horrible debate performance last year in which she was silent and bumbling for quite a while (she was easily reelected in November nontheless), to the shooting in Tucson of Gabrielle Giffords in January, to the recent passage by the state assembly of a so-called “birther bill” that “would require Arizona’s secretary of state to review a presidential candidate’s birth certificate before that candidate could get on the ballot in the state.”

Coming on the heels of Donald Trump’s continuedinfatuation with the fauxcontroversy of Barack Obama’s birth (Obama himself had fun with it at a fundraiser in Chicago recently), and the cheering on of Trump by many in the Tea Party, including Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin, it seemed as though Arizona Republicans were about to walk themselves off a cliff and take the whole Republican Party with them. (Let me stipulate that I don’t understand the “birther movement,” particularly since Obama has provided evidence that should prove to any reasonable person that he was born in Hawaii, and FactCheck.org and Politifact, both known for intrepidly investigating the facts, were both wholly convinced of the authenticity of this truth.)

Right when Arizona Republicans seemed ready to sign their 2012 party’s presidential chance’s death warrant, though, Brewer rode to the rescue, vetoing the bill, saying:

As a former Secretary of State, I do not support designating one person as a gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically-motivated decisions.

Had she not, the move would surely have boomeranged on the Republicans, as it would have required the state secretary of state (a Republican) to adjudge Barack Obama either born in the United States or to be an alien illegally holding the post. If Ken Bennett, the secretary of state, had done the former, it would have taken the wind out of the sails of the birther movement (though perhaps not likely, as when we are confronted with incontrovertible evidence, sometimes we still choose to disbelieve it), or he would have confirmed a lie, signaling to the independents who decide elections that the Republican Party, unfairly, was a whole lot of lunatic. Even if he had so judged Obama to be illegal, it would have then been challenged, forcing a whole slew of judges, including possibly the U.S. Supreme Court to make rulings attesting to or invalidating Obama’s birth in the United States. Forced to take a stand, rational Republicans, such as Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, have leapt to criticize Trump and others who are harping on the birther issue and to go on record saying what should be obvious to everyone: that Obama was born in the United States.

Now, with the flick of a pen, Brewer has stopped all the nonsense and possibly removed the issue as a central one in the campaign. More important for Republicans, with the bill off the table, the fringe supporters (who are not so fringe, given that in a recent poll 48% of Republicans in Iowa believed Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.) can be left to believe what they want of Obama no matter the evidence and clears the decks for the Republican candidates to appeal to the independent voters they’ll need to win back the White House in 2012.

When Arizona passed the immigration bill last year and after the shooting in January, it seemed implausible that Jan Brewer would be the savior of the Republican Party. Still, she may just be.